It’s Thursday Already?

Woke up to another dusting of snow...last week it was 75 degrees...it's sleeting right now.

Yet again…too many tasks on the to-do list and too few hours to get them all done. None of them were onerous but all week I’ve felt like I’m trying to run on very slick ice with big ole’ Bean boots on…do you know the feeling?

Rather than bore you with the details…here’s another little picture slide show of my Tuesday excursion.

In the morning I drove to Orland (about 20 minutes North East of the Campground for a radio interview on WERU (it was a community talk forum about the ConocoPhillips project they want to install in Searsport…if you’re curious you can listen here). BTW…WERU is a fantastic community radio station…you can pick it up on line and you should definitely be listening anytime you’re in our area. But I digress…

The wind was howling that day but the sun was brilliant. I brought J the hound with me so that we could hike after the radio show at the Great Pond Mountain Wildlands The 4,300 acre trust is just 5 more minutes up the road and I think I was the only human hiking that day…it was gorgeous and on the sheltered walking path the wind was manageable…and the hound was giddy about the walk. When you come up for a visit…this is a great place to hike and mountain bike…AND just a little further up the road is the Chicken Barn Antique & Book Shop…OMG, I digress but I scored a long length of indigo dyed, hand woven, hand embroidered (with shisha mirrors) fabric for 20 dollars…I’m still happy about it and have it hanging in the art studio…but back to the hike:

We parked in the Route 1 lot just nine miles out of Bucksport and followed the short Esker Path (1.2 miles) through the bog and upland into a wooded vale with a few pretty views of Great Pond Mountain. An esker is a raised gravel deposit so all along the way you see huge boulders of granite that seem to have dropped from nowhere…if you’re in an artistic sort of mood, the combination of the shadows across the lichen that clings to the boulders and the stark contrast of the leafless trees reminds you of a sculptural garden. And did I mention that I was the only human for miles, with only the sound of the brooks, wind and birds. One of the pleasures of hiking before the leaves burst is seeing all of the birds’ nests in the trees. They were woven with lichen, twigs, moss, animal fuzz and other pretty finds…even a pink shoelace!

Truth be told I wish that I were focused like this during the entire walk…If you were inside my stream of consciousness for these two hours you’d hear my inner child lamenting the lack of snacks…a Snickers bar would have tasted so good by the stream. Note to self: plan better…age seems to make me hungrier.

Anyway, here’s another one of those nifty slide shows to give you an idea of the terrain if you’d like to check the landtrust out another time~ I’ll have the map available at the front desk.

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As I proof read this posting, it sounds like my writing is on the ice too…all over the place…sorry about that…it’s like peeking into my brain…:)